PCAP-31-03 1.3 Generate Random Values Using the Random Module PCAP-31 Practice Questions (Page 2)

Questions 6–9

1. 6expert · hard

   A developer is building a recommendation system that needs to randomly select 5 items from a catalog of 1000 items for a user. The selection must be reproducible for a given user ID. The developer writes: ```python random.seed(user_id) recommendations = random.sample(catalog, 5) ``` Later, the developer discovers that the same user always gets the same 5 recommendations, but the requirement is that the user should get a different set of recommendations each time they visit, while still being reproducible for debugging. Which approach should the developer take?

   • ASeed with user_id only, but call random.sample() multiple times and take the last result.
   • BDo not seed at all, and use random.sample(catalog, 5).
   • CSeed with user_id only, but use random.choices() instead of random.sample().
   • DSeed with a combination of user_id and the current date, e.g., random.seed(user_id * 10000 + day_of_year).
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2. 7application · easy

   A developer is writing a test that needs to generate a random float in [0.0, 1.0) to simulate a sensor reading. The test must be deterministic so that the same sequence of readings is produced every time the test runs. Which code should the developer write?

   • Arandom.seed(99); reading = random.random()
   • Breading = random.random()
   • Creading = random.uniform(0, 1)
   • Drandom.seed(); reading = random.random()
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4. 8foundation · easy

   What is the primary purpose of calling random.seed(42) before generating random numbers?

   • ATo ensure the random numbers are unique each time the program runs
   • BTo make the random numbers more unpredictable
   • CTo increase the speed of random number generation
   • DTo produce the same sequence of random numbers on each run
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5. 9application · medium

   A developer is writing a quiz application that presents questions in a random order. The developer wants to use the same random order for a given user across multiple sessions, but different users should get different orders. The user ID is an integer. Which approach should the developer take?

   • ACall random.seed() before shuffling the questions.
   • BCall random.seed(42) before shuffling the questions.
   • CCall random.seed(user_id) before shuffling the questions.
   • DCall random.shuffle(questions) without seeding.
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